Seminar Proceedings

Title: Borderland Securitisation and Counter-Narratives in South Asia

Organised by Rehmat and Maryam Researches, Islamabad

Introduction

Rehmat and Maryam Researches, Islamabad, convened a high-level academic seminar to discuss Uzma Taaj Shah’s groundbreaking 2024 study, “Borderland Securitisation and Counter-Narratives in South Asia”. The event brought together scholars of political science, security studies and international relations to analyse the evolving securitisation dynamics along the borderlands of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. The discussion focused on how state-led security frameworks reshape governance, identity and resistance in regions historically marked by cultural pluralism and geopolitical contestation.

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Session I: Afghanistan: The Anatomy of Endless Securitisation

The first session examined Afghanistan as a core case of perpetual securitisation. Scholars highlighted that since 2001, Afghan politics has been dominated by security narratives framed through global counterterrorism discourse. Uzma Taaj’s research points out that international military interventions entrenched a culture of surveillance and suspicion, where border communities were portrayed as potential threats rather than legitimate political actors.

The Afghan state, weakened by dependency on foreign aid and internal ethnic divisions, has institutionalised securitisation as a mode of governance. The Taliban’s return to power has deepened this structure, redefining security through ideological control rather than institutional reform. Participants observed that while the regime presents its rule as an alternative to foreign militarisation, it continues to use similar tools — territorial policing, religious moralisation and discursive suppression — to consolidate authority. The Afghan borderlands thus remain trapped in a continuum of securitised politics that prevent social integration and democratic consolidation.

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Session II: Pakistan: Institutionalising Security Governance in the Tribal Belt

The second session centred on Pakistan’s post-9/11 transformation of the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), particularly South Waziristan. Drawing on Taaj’s arguments, the discussion recognised Pakistan as a state where the securitisation of governance has become institutionalised through military structures. The Pakistan Army’s operations in FATA, followed by reconstruction programmes and political reforms, were interpreted as processes that embedded security logic into the administrative order.

Speakers noted that Pakistan’s security institutions have reframed borderland governance around counterterrorism, national integration, and controlled development. Through discursive strategies — portraying the military as a peace-building force — the state has effectively shaped public perception and muted dissent. However, this approach, while stabilising the region, has also displaced tribal authority, redefined identity politics, and limited civic participation.

Taaj’s study was commended for introducing the concept of “security-driven citizenship”, where loyalty and belonging in Pakistan’s border regions are measured by conformity to national security norms. The discussants agreed that this pattern mirrors what Willasey-Wilsey (2023) termed “security institutionalism”, where militarised governance becomes a permanent feature of political order.

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Session III: Iran: Securitisation at the Crossroads of Ethnicity and Ideology

The third session focused on Iran’s border regions — particularly Sistan-Baluchestan and the Kurdish territories — where securitisation manifests through a complex interplay of ethnicity, ideology and state centralisation. According to Taj, the Iranian state maintains a dual approach; integrating borderlands through infrastructural development while suppressing ethno-religious autonomy through intelligence control and ideological conformity.

Experts observed that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) performs a role similar to Pakistan’s Army in its frontier governance — projecting development as a tool of loyalty-building while embedding a narrative of “defence of the Islamic Revolution”. The participants agreed that securitisation in Iran operates through moral, political and religious discourses that delegitimise local grievances as threats to national unity. However, unlike Pakistan, Iran’s borderland securitisation is ideologically infused, connecting regional stability directly with the preservation of revolutionary identity.

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Synthesis and Discussion

The seminar concluded with a comparative synthesis of the three states. The discussants agreed that Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran share a regional pattern where borderlands are governed through overlapping frameworks of securitisation. The difference lies in the institutional and ideological vehicles through which these frameworks operate.

• In Afghanistan, securitisation is externally imposed and perpetuated through global security regimes.
• In Pakistan, it is institutionalised internally through military-bureaucratic governance and discursive power.
• In Iran, it is ideologically anchored in revolutionary legitimacy and religious control.

Collectively, these approaches reveal a regional tendency to replace political negotiation with security narratives. This process not only marginalises local voices but also transforms borderland identities, aligning them with state-centric security logics rather than participatory governance.

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Concluding Remarks

In her concluding address, Maryam, co-organiser of the seminar, emphasised that Uzma Taaj’s research offers a critical bridge between institutional and discursive analyses of power. It calls for reimagining South Asian borderlands as spaces of negotiation rather than perpetual militarisation. Shameem Shah, in her final note, encouraged young scholars to explore how counter-narratives — rooted in culture, poetry and local history — can deconstruct the dominance of security discourse and restore human agency to these marginalised zones.

The seminar affirmed that future research in South Asian security studies must move beyond state-centric paradigms, integrating sociological and institutional frameworks to understand how securitisation transforms governance, identity and everyday life in the borderlands of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.